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Since the giant crimson bulb above the door lit up in late summer, Red Light has drawn crowds. The dramatic restaurant with its undulating surfaces and trendy display kitchen is all about style-but executive chef Michael Kornick's idea of Pan-Asian cooking has substance to match.

Now, you can sample the food at lunchtime, when the dining room is quieter and perhaps looks gaudier. The eclectic design includes flamboyant canopies over the banquette and heart-shaped bar stools, as well as warm woodwork inset with mosaic tiles. The wrought-metal railings and light fixtures are intriguing, though the metal chair backs are uncomfortable.

The noon menu is a pared-down version of the dinner lineup, with a focus on small dishes, salads and noodles. Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian influences prevail.

Meals typically begin with a freebie, such as mussels perched on bean sprouts and rice noodles. Appetizers worth trying range from sweet-sticky spare ribs with barbecue sauce (finger bowls provided) to steamed dumplings, either stuffed with eggplant and mushrooms and served in a spicy-tart sauce with powdered mustard and vinegar, or filled with gingery pork. Vietnamese rice-paper rolls with carrot, bean sprouts and vermicelli are boring by comparison, except for the chopped peanuts and tangy dipping sauce.

Satays get a section of their own, among them Indonesian lamb satay, spice-coated morsels of tender, skewered meat with one-dimensional Jakarta chili sauce. Chicken with peanut sauce and shrimp with basil and mint are the other picks. A condiment tray on each table has five sauces.

Of the salads, "crispy duck with romaine, chow mein noodles and sesame dressing" differs from the menu description but is delightful. Instead of romaine, the toss of julienne duck and crunchy noodles has nappa, bean sprouts, red and yellow bell peppers and watercress, spiked with tiny green chilies, bound together by a vinaigrette and finished with curls of crispy duck skin.

"Wide rice noodles with velvet chicken, basil and mint" also is more than expected. Black beans add to the sauce, and the dish has Chinese broccoli, peapods and mushrooms, though the chicken is dry and the noodles overdone. Pan-fried egg noodles with many of the same ingredients in a lighter sauce are crowned by succulent five-spice squid.

Of the two curries, the daily fish (I had wild sea bass) paired with mild green coconut-milk curry sauce often outclasses the clay-pot chicken-on one visit a measly two little pieces of grossly overcooked, dry poultry for $9-though the red curry with Thai baby eggplant and other goodies almost compensated.

Vegetables are straightforward: slightly crunchy green beans in a dark sauce with roasted garlic; asparagus stir-fried with shiitakes; chunks of almost caramelized eggplant in subtle sweet-and-sour sauce. Specials may be whimsical, such as egg foo young that's really a rock shrimp-and-straw mushroom frittata drizzled with oyster sauce, dabbed with chili paste and decorated with cilantro, watercress and bean sprouts.

The best desserts are a tiny, intense chocolate tart and hot-fudge-draped coconut sorbet that's as creamy as ice cream. Coffee isn't offered, but hot and cold teas, wines, beers and other brews, like ginseng cola, are.

Friendly, helpful servers may be careless and inattentive. A few suffer from attitude: Consider the hostess who, having lost a reservation, actually asked the potential patron if he was sure he was at the right restaurant.

CRAIN'SCHICAGOBUSINESS now uses a four-fork system of rating restaurants, with the following values: One forkabove average; two forksvery good; three forksexcellent; four forksworld-class. In addition, there are "satisfactory" and "uns atisfactory" categories, which rank below one fork